Blunt tracheobronchial injury

Blunt tracheobronchial injury is rare but crucial injury. We discussed some problems about blunt tracheobronchial injury and presented our experience. To rescue patients with blunt tracheobronchial injury, surgical treatment within 24 hours from injury is recommended when general anesthesia is acceptable. Therefore, bronchoscopy should be performed immediately for patients who transferred to hospital due to blunt chest trauma. Outcome of surgery for tracheobronchial injury depends on co-existence of other organs and the degree of tracheobronchial injury itself. To improve the prognosis of patients with blunt trachobronchial injury, we need to know the accurate incidence and results of treatment in Japan. To know the fact, a large-scaled prospective registration of cases with tracheobronchial injury is necessary. At present, the Japanese association for the surgery of trauma is conducting such registration. We present a 29 year-old male who had blunt tracheobronchial injury and underwent reconstruction of carina in our hospital. Rupture of carina was recognized by bronchscopy and pneumomediastinum was shown in chest computed tomography (CT). Operation was successfully performed 22 hours later from injury and the patient discharged 28 days after from injury.